[afnog] Internet Exchange Point and legal demands

[Bill Woodcock]

> On Oct 15, 2018, at 9:51 AM, Mark Tinka <mark.tinka at seacom.mu> wrote:
> What common... fighting tapping by the gubbermint, or fighting legal tapping by the gubbermint?
> It is not unreasonable to expect that gubbermints will issue requests to tap networks, be they exchange points or regular commercial service providers. When gubbermints get clever enough to realize that exchange points are a major infrastructure that carries plenty of juicy data, it won't be long before they come knocking.
> The problem any major international exchange point has is they stand to lose a lot of business of the local gubbermint under which they are incorporated tries to pull this. What the gubbermint fails to realize is that there are tons of other nations running their traffic through that exchange point, and that this is a source of good revenue for said exchange point (and by extension, the local tax base). 
> While the gubbermint's intentions may be nationally self-serving, the global impact risks the very fabric of that operation, and the reason it has been a success (and by extension, the local tax base).

Yeah, Mark’s right.

Globally, there aren’t that many governments that have enough clue about where traffic goes to realize that an IX is an interesting place for them to place a tap (putting aside completely the question of whether the tap is legal or compulsory both or neither).

Most governments are still dragging themselves out of the twentieth century, when they had a single relationship with a single state-owned telco, which did their wiretappery for them on request.  Those telcos still exist, and still try to sell that service to governments, so those telcos generally don’t _want_ governments realizing that there’s a much more comprehensive source of traffic nearby.  IXP operators would much rather not be involved, both because it puts them in the position of betraying their participants’ trust, and because it’s a hassle.  So IXP operators are perfectly happy to have governments deal with carriers rather than the IXP.

In short, there aren’t that many situations where all the incentives align and someone shows up with a tap at an IXP.  A few countries it’s common (the same countries that you’d think of as having omnipresent surveillance), but most places not.

                                -Bill